Past Knowledge
by JaceDLark
Summary: Sokka and Zuko discover a hidden cache of scrolls in the Western Air Temple. Is that past knowledge all they will learn or could they discover something about themselves and each other at the same time? SLASH, AU, possible OOC. Set after s3 e13.
1. The Painted Mural

Hey hey.

So I recently watched Avatar for the first time ever during the Easter holidays and couldn't get it out of my mind. This fic is a part of that. I hope you enjoy it.

**DISCLAIMER** - I do not own Avatar or any of the characters portayed in this fic - just my love for Sokka and Zuko!

Jace.

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><p><strong>Past Knowledge<strong>

_The Painted Mural_

As amazing as the Western Air Temple was, having spent several days there had made it seem, well, very boring. Sokka was bored. Super bored. Super mega bored. He strolled around the camp listlessly trying to come up with something to do. The slopping sound of airborne water drew his attention to the fountain or at least what was left of it after Combustion Man managed to destroy it earlier. Katara was gracefully weaving the water around her body, whipping it at Aang and trying to knock the young monk over. Without warning the water stopped moving and began to split into tiny droplets. They sped at the Airbender and pummelled his face. Contrary to her intended effect, the Avatar was amused and squealed with laughter, telling his teacher that it felt like a thunderstorm on his face. A small smile graced her lips as she indulged him.

Snorting internally, Sokka turned away from them. He had always been jealous of Katara and her Waterbending abilities. What must it feel like to be able to move and control water? Was it silky and smooth or was it more difficult than it appeared? Either way, it was obvious (to him at least) that there was something going on between his sister and the Avatar. Aang worshipped the ground she walked on and Katara was so protective of him that it was ridiculous. On several occasions now she had sided with him instead of her own brother and if the two of them were dying and she could only save one, Sokka was certain he would cease to exist and it hurt ever so much. Not because his sister was falling for Aang (although he was pretty sure she was still oblivious to it all) but for other more selfish reasons. It made him feel lonely.

Sokka had known for quite some time that he favoured men over women but had held onto the fact that both Yue and Suki seemed to like him. Of course that probably had something to do with the fact that he'd hoped kissing them would somehow make him like women more. It hadn't worked. Whilst it was nice to be kissing in reality rather than in fantasies, it seemed to achieve an opposite goal. They were soft and squishy and all he could think about was how he'd rather have someone harder and more masculine instead. That was why he was so angry and snarky lately. As long as they were travelling, he was too busy coming up with plans and fighting his way haphazardly through battle after battle to think about the abysmal mess that was his lack of love life. His only real shred of dignity about the whole thing was that with the two ladies he'd never gotten to the point of trying to have sex with them. Just the thought alone made him want to lose the beaverdeer jerky he'd eaten for breakfast.

As always, his thoughts turned to the only guy he really liked in that way. Teo. There was something about the charisma of the teen who had been dealt a hard hand at life. Sokka couldn't imagine being stuck in that contraption for the rest of his days but Teo bore the burden with pride. He was no fool however. Everyone liked Teo, he was well thought of by all. Which is why whenever Toph called him Teo it made his blood boil and his heart sink. He was the only person she called by their real name. Everyone else was teased mercilessly. Sokka was Snoozles and for what he could never really work out. His sister was Sugar Queen for the most obvious reasons. Aang was Twinkletoes for being light on his feet (as if that were ever in doubt, he is an Airbender after all...) Pebble was the name she came up with for Haro and Sokka suspected it was because as an Earthbender, his power was nothing to hers. The other name was Midget for The Duke. Originally, she had started calling Teo Wheelie but after a few days, that had faded back to Teo. Once again, a pair who thought they were being subtle but really weren't. It probably also had something to do with how both of them were disabled and knew exactly how it felt to be treated as helpless when they were anything but.

Which left two others, Pebble and Midget. Both of which Sokka found to be extremely irritating. The Duke was just so annoying that he refused to even think about the kid for longer than a moment. Haro was too busy trying to chat up his sister despite her obvious lack of interest in him. It made Sokka want to kill and bury him. Being a brother could be really hard work sometimes.

With a heavy sigh, Sokka scratched his head and meandered toward the various rooms in the Air Temple. Since there was no need for him to do pretty much anything, he needed a distraction. All of these thoughts only served to depress him and reminded him that yes, he was totally alone. Get used to it. With a small shake of his head, he was sidetracked by the unmistakable sound of a whetting stone on a sword. His eyes snapped over to take in the sight of Zuko. He'd forgotten the boy was even here. At least that was what his brain constantly tried to do. Whilst he wasn't as anti-Zuko as Katara, he was still less than thrilled that the Firebender had joined their small group after hunting them down like turtleducks for so long. Sure he understood that Aang needed to learn Firebending and all, but why did it have to be that pretentious bastard who had to assume that role?

Rolling his eyes as he silently walked by, Sokka made his way to his favourite room in the Western Air Temple. It was at the end of the hallway where Zuko was currently staying. It was a massive room made entirely of the same brick as the courtyard outside. It was square in shape with extremely high columns in two rows to the opposite side. On the far wall was a large mural. It was the reason that Sokka loved this place. However, it wasn't just a painting. Every shape in the wall was a separately shaped brick which must have been painted before being added to the mural. It was like a very thick puzzle and looked like if you deliberately pushed on a piece, it would slide into the mural. Of course the bricks did no such thing, not that he would have tried pushing them or anything, right? Okay, so he had but achieved nothing.

The mural was made up of four differing windows, each containing a graphical representation of one of the four nations. The one on the far left was his favourite and naturally depicted the Water Tribe. A woman was seated next to a pond in a flowing white robe. She looked a lot like the Princess had except the woman's hair was a rich chocolate brown colour. Her eyes were the same ocean blue as the pond and the moon was peeking out from behind a cloud in the corner of the mural. Next to it was a painting of a young girl with hair the colour of honey, surrounded by many creatures of the forest which was the backdrop of the scene. The third was an old man dressed in blood red robes with the sun sitting directly over his head, a volcano erupting behind his left side. The final one was the picture of a monk that looked a lot like Aang, dressed in orange with his head raised in meditation, his eyes closed. He seemed to be sitting on a cloud, like that was possible.

Underneath the murals were a few words that were so highly decorated that Sokka couldn't work out what they said. Having stared at the words every day without any success of working out what they said, he'd decided enough was enough. He'd have to swallow his pride and ask someone else for help. His first instinct was to try Toph and he got halfway across the room before smacking himself in the head. Because she acted so unladylike and course he always seemed to forget that she was blind. Maybe Aang could read it, he used to live at the temples long ago, so maybe he could read the inscription for him.

Sokka dashed out of the room, still hearing Zuko sharpening his dao swords, to where Aang was caught up in a furious battle with Toph. He slumped his shoulders in defeat knowing that facing her wrath was really not worth it. In fact, with all of the training, there would be very little chance of ever getting the Avatar on his own. There was no one left to help him. Who else would know the strange flourished lettering of the calligraphy? Certainly not Katara, Haro and The Duke. Teo may know it but embarrassingly, Sokka still found it difficult to talk to him. His attraction caused even the most simplest of sentences to die on his tongue. The only other intelligent beast on the trip was Appa but Sokka doubted he'd be able to tell exactly what the flying bison would moan at him. That was if he could somehow get him into the room in the first place.

With another deep sigh, Sokka trudged back toward the room, intent on sitting in front of the water woman and wondering if he'd ever find her kind attractive for the next few hours. His footsteps halted at the familiar sound from Zuko's room. Once again he'd forgotten all about Zuko. He was a prince with a palace education so he could probably discern the message. With a new spring in his step, Sokka all but ran to the room and barged in. The prince didn't move from his task, probably having heard the approaching footsteps. "Read something for me," he demanded without even the slightest preamble.

Zuko's movements never stilled. "No." A very simple answer.

In all honesty, Sokka should have expected an answer like that but in his excitement he'd forgotten that Zuko was almost as abrupt as Toph. "Please?" he asked in a slightly more polite tone.

"No."

Sokka frowned a little before wiping the expression from his face. "Oh, princey, prince, special prince of the Fire Nation, can you pretty, pretty, pretty please read a little something for me?" He pouted at the teen as the other still sharpened his swords.

"No."

"Gah!" screeched Sokka in frustration (in a manly way, he hoped) as he glared at the Firebender. "Read the damn inscription, already."

"No." Whilst he hadn't stopped his actions, a smirk was creeping across his face.

"Is that the only word you know?" asked Sokka angrily. It was the first time Sokka had ever seen the prince look anything less than angry or irritated.

"No," came the calm reply.

Sokka nearly leapt at the man who was almost sniggering. At him. He was so going down. However, the prince was armed with two very sharp swords and all he had was his boomerang. Not a very good close range weapon. Instead of launching himself at the Firebender, he took a couple of calming breaths. With as much sincerity as he could muster he asked another question. "Will you please help me when you're finished?" The idiot had no idea how difficult it was to ask him nicely.

"No."

With a huff, Sokka threw out a joking suggestion. "Will you help me out if I dressed up as my sister and kissed the Avatar?"

There was a marginal pause before the reply, "No."

Sokka realised that Zuko must have really wanted to say yes but his pride wouldn't let him. Interesting, perhaps he could use that to his advantage. A plan came to mind and he thought he'd test it out. "Do you want me to tie up Aang and take the two of you to the Fire Lord?"

There was a very pregnant pause before a barely audible growl. "No."

With a silent cheer to himself, congratulating him on his cleverness, Sokka began a quick fire round of questions. "Are you a weapons master?"

"No."

"Are you a Firebender?"

"No." His previous expression on mirth was rapidly disintegrating into rage. He had stopped sharpening his swords, gripping onto the suspended rock tightly in an attempt no to throw it.

"Can you even use those dao swords?"

"No."

"Do you like women?"

"NO."

"Will you ever become the next Fire Lord?"

"NO!"

"Do you want me to go?"

"YES!" screamed the young prince in anger.

"HAH!" Screeched Sokka in victory. "I WIN!" Doing a little impromptu dance, Sokka was surprised when he was shoved against a wall.

"Will you stop that?" snarled Zuko as he continued to press the Water Tribe native into the wall.

"NO!" cackled Sokka loudly before he began to giggle uncontrollably. His body sagged as he was guffawing too hard to help stay upright. Zuko's face twitched and before either boy knew it they were both lying on the floor suffering from unstoppable laughter. When it eventually died down, Sokka noticed that his gut hurt a lot. It was also the first time he'd ever heard the prince's laugh before and it was also the first time they'd tolerated each others presence for longer than absolutely necessary. He also noticed that Zuko's thigh was pretty damn comfortable. Wait, what? Within the blink of an eye he was standing up again and backed away from the prince.

Zuko gave Sokka an annoyed look mingled with a little bit of sadness from the floor. It was the first time anyone had heard him laugh in ages, was it really that bad? "Alright, since I don't think I'll get rid of you otherwise, give me the thing you need read to you, Peasant. I knew you were less educated than me but I thought you'd at least be able to read." He haughtily extended his hand to a now scowling warrior, waiting for the boy to give him the parchment or whatever it was.

Sokka was less than pleased. "I do know how to read!" he barked back before angrily grabbing the prince's hand and hauling him to his feet. Despite how upset he was at the moment, he did notice how warm the teen's hands were and somehow the warmth seemed to seep up his arm causing his breath to catch in his lungs.

A little surprised, Zuko was shocked at how easily Sokka managed to lift him from the ground. He must be quite strong. With a couple of glances at Sokka's biceps the prince wondered how he never noticed how muscly the Waterbender's brother truly was. Turning his thoughts away from the buff arms, he looked inquiringly at Sokka.

Without waiting for a response, Sokka huffed and turned toward the door. He pulled the prince along behind him to the mural room. When they reached the writing, he just pointed at it. "That's why I can't tell what it's saying. The characters are too fancy to read." He went to fold his arms with superiority and discovered that he was still holding Zuko's hand. After staring at it in puzzlement for a moment, he quickly let go with a tiny yelp, causing the prince to snigger.

"They may be too fancy for you to read but I can..." Zuko trailed off for a moment as he looked at a few of the characters which seemed to be illegible.

"I told you they were tricky." Sokka this time succeeded in folding his arms and raising his nose in superiority, a smirk on his face.

Zuko growled a little and began to make sense of the characters. With a frown he haltingly read, "Let the... spirits... g-guide you... on... your quest."

"That's it? That's what it says? Are you sure?" asked Sokka quickly.

"Yes, yes and yes," answered the prince, thinking back to the whole no argument with a very slight smile.

"Let the spirits guide you on your quest. What does it mean?" asked Sokka plaintively.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Zuko answered with, "how should I know?"

Without answering, Sokka muttered the phrase under his breath repeatedly as he looked at the mural. "It must have something to do with the paintings. Why else would it be written here?"

"That... makes sense," conceded Zuko. Looking with interest at the Fire Nation painting.

Sokka had of course returned to the painting of the Water Tribe woman. He looked closer at her face. She really did look like Princess Yue. Princess Yue? She was given life from the moon spirit. Let the spirits guide you on your quest? His eyes flickered from her face to the moon, back to her face and to the pond. There was a black koi fish swimming in the lake. A flashback to two swimming koi fish, Tui and La, in the Spirit Oasis later and Sokka was starting to get a little idea about what those words might have meant. With a shaky hand, he applied pressure to the black koi fish and with the grating of stone upon stone, it began to sink into the wall.

Catching the unexpected sound, Zuko turned toward the other boy only to have a slight freak out at seeing the boy's arm elbow deep in the wall. He quickly moved to the other and discovered he was the source of the sound and he did still have the entirety of his arm.

Sokka felt the stone stop moving when his bicep was halfway into the newly made hole. There was an audible click which caused both of them to start in surprise. Pulling his arm free, he turned to the prince and said, "La."

"La?" responded Zuko in confusion.

"La, the ocean spirit," confirmed Sokka.

Zuko's eyes widened slightly as he began to understand what Sokka had already worked out.

"Give me a boost," demanded Sokka as he pointed toward the moon, which was very high up on the mural.

As Zuko did so and he heard the sound of grating stone again. He wondered aloud, "Why is it so high up? No one would be able to reach it alone."

As the Water Tribe warrior reached the ground, he gave the prince a slight look of disgust. "We're in an Airbender Temple, idiot." It wasn't often that Sokka managed to outthink someone, and certainly never a prince. Boy would he lord it over him for the rest of eternity.

Zuko flushed a little with shame. He should have thought of that. "Are there any other spirits in this one?" he asked, trying to distract the attention off of his idiocy.

"I don't think so," replied Sokka. "The only really powerful Water Tribe spirits are Tui and La. The moon and the ocean." His eyes still lingering on the woman's face.

"Well that probably means we should do the same with Zhu, the god of fire and the sun." Soon the sun was pushed into the mural. Followed by the dragon hiding within a cave on the volcano. Only it's golden face was visible. "Dragons were the original Firebenders," was his explanation.

"The Badgermoles taught Toph and are revered for the same reason by the Earthbenders, just like the Bison for the Airbenders," noted Sokka. They found the two animals in their respective murals and they clicked into place just like the rest. Both boys were starting to get excited, wondering what would happen if they solved this puzzle, right or wrong. "Wait, I know this one! It's Hei Bai, the forest spirit." Sokka compressed the Pandabear depiction.

"Hmm," thought Zuko out loud. "We've got the first bending creatures, Koi, Badgermole, Dragon and Bison but we still don't have the other spirits. Moon, forest, sun and..." he trailed off. The two boys searched the Air Nomad mural for the last spirit. With a snap of his fingers, Zuko demanded, "give me a boost!"

Sokka complied even though he felt this would be the last spirit and he should be pushing it in, it was his discovery in the first place. He was surprised to see Zuko reaching for, well, nothing. He was even more surprised to see the entire expanse of rock slide in. "What?" he asked, completely confused.

"It's Ao, spirit of the sky! Who else would be important to the Airbenders?" Zuko announced as he continued to push the stone in. With a click, a rumbling began as the eight objects began to return to their original positions. Zuko looked on with amazement and then disappointment when nothing happened. Maybe they had gotten the idea wrong. It had felt right though.

"Wait, look!" squealed Sokka (although he would later deny it), pointing to where the characters were. They had moved upward to reveal a space filled with scrolls. Whilst it was nothing compared to Wan Shi Tong's collection of knowledge, this little treasure trove would keep him busy for ages! The two looked at each other and grinned madly before grabbing a scroll each. As soon as the scrolls were removed, the sound of grating stone once again filled the room and the stone fell back to it's original place. The twosome had to cover their eyes as the coloured murals glowed brilliantly before disappearing from view completely. The paint no longer in sight. "Where'd they go?" asked Sokka in disappointment.

Zuko just stood staring in surprise, unable to find any trace of the murals at all. Before he could say anything, the other masters and the Avatar came bounding into the room, Toph in the lead. "Oh, you're both alright," Toph muttered. "I felt a huge shift in the rock and thought I might have been saved from you, Sparky. It seems that I'm not lucky enough."

"Thanks for your concern," muttered Zuko with sarcastic irritation.

"Can you see any pictures on the wall?" asked Sokka, looking to the group.

Katara gently shook her head and Aang said, "Nope."

"I can!" answered Toph excitedly.

"Really!" burbled Sokka excitedly. "It's strange that we can't see it anymore but at least you..." the words died in his mouth as Zuko stifled a laugh. "Why do you keep doing that?" he asked angrily.

"Why do you have to be so stupid?" Toph countered, quickly before turning and leaving the room. "It's boring in here now, Snoozles. Bye"

Katara looked about one last time before saying, "I'm going to make a start on dinner," turning and following Toph out of the door.

"YES!" shrieked Sokka in excitement. "Food!"

Zuko shook his head. Is that all the boy ever thought about. How did he manage to look so good if he ate so much? Look good? Sure his arms were nice but he hadn't really seen enough to make a true decision about the matter. Then he wondered why he needed to make a true decision on how good Sokka looked. Shaking the thoughts away, Zuko told Aang about the strange mural and how it opened a hidden door before disappearing.

Jumping excitedly, Aang informed them, "I know what you're on about, now. The Paintings of Enlightenment, I never would have remembered it at all without your help. The Paintings of Enlightenment is a test benders could take if they thought they were ready to move onto the next stage of their spiritual development. For some students the scroll they received would describe a new technique for them to learn and for others it contained wisdom meant only for them. You see, no one can open the door to the scrolls without the mural to guide them, even the masters could only open it once. I never got to open it." Aang spent a moment pouting before he shrugged it off. "Then again, only two of my friends got to."

Zuko looked at his scroll. "What good is an Airbending scroll to me?" he asked the Avatar.

The twelve year old blinked at the prince, "I don't know Zuko but if you could see the mural, the spirits must believe there is something you need to know. They've never opened the door without a reason." There was a rumble of rock and Aang jumped in surprise. "I'd, er, better get back out there before Toph makes the training harder. See you!" With a gust of wind the Avatar was gone.

Sokka looked down to his unopened scroll. Why did the spirits give him a scroll? It's not like he could bend, well, anything. As he tentatively reached to open the scroll, he was distracted by the sound of a crackling fire. He looked up to see Zuko encased in flames. "Spirits, you're on fire!" He dropped his scroll, trying to find something to put the fire out with before it disappeared on its own. As soon as the flames were gone, the prince collapsed on the floor. Within moments, Sokka was by his side, checking to see if he was still alive. Thankfully he was still breathing.

Gently lifting the unconscious man, Sokka heaved him back to his room and lowered him gently onto his bed. He was still extremely hot but that was to be expected since he had been on fire just before. It was the only time that Sokka had been able to study the young man without someone (usually the prince himself) annoying and distracting him. Just like always, the scar was the first thing that seemed to attract his attention. However this was the first time that it didn't invoke feelings of anger at the Firebenders or fears of being attacked like it used to. No, this was the first time he'd felt pity. A burn like that must have hurt so much. The scarring looked really old too so he must have been quite young when he got it.

With a quick glance at the prince's eyes to ensure that they were indeed closed, Sokka gently let the fingertips of his right hand glide across the scar. It felt bumpy and ridged but the raised areas of skin were quite soft to touch. When he applied a gentle pressure to them, they squished down a little bit more than regular skin. He brought his other hand up and traced the unscarred side to feel the difference. He couldn't help but marvel at how both sides managed to feel the same but also different at the same time. It was both really weird but also awesome.

The first thing Zuko felt when he started to return to consciousness was an icy feeling on his burn. It tickled a little but he had overcome such silly sensations years ago. For some time after he'd been scorched by his father he'd awaken from a nightmare and his scar would feel like it had been freshly burned again. This cold sensation was something new. He was even more surprised when a similar feeling began on the other side of his face. Was the other side on fire too? Gently opening his eyes, Zuko could see a very large thumb and behind it a concentrating Sokka. Why was the Water Tribe man feeling his face? His confusion and exhaustion was probably the only reason he didn't shove the other man away. That and it felt nice so Zuko let him continue.

Sokka knew that he should really stop and he was all but molesting the poor boy, someone he had hated until their laughing fit earlier today, but he just couldn't. He had never had a single moment to get this close to a boy without anyone else being nearby especially not since they'd discovered the Avatar. Zuko was also a strange and mysterious prince from a far away land, isn't that what every boy dreams of? Well, every boy attracted to their own sex. Anyway, this groping someone whilst they were asleep was really creepy and stalkerish so with a deep sigh, Sokka took one last look at the face he was petting. He was more than surprised when his eyes locked with two golden orbs who were staring at him with surprise and confusion.

After months on the road and being chased by various murderous people, Sokka's sense of self preservation kicked in and before he knew it he was back in the mural room. How could he have done that? Feeling his face? What kind of sick creature does things like that? If he wasn't so afraid of what Zuko would do, he'd be a weeping and nervous mess. A glint distracted him from his thoughts and his eyes discovered an open scroll sitting on the floor. It must have been the one the prince was reading because it was already opened. Sokka quickly glanced toward the mural wall (which remained blank, sigh) and found his scroll. Tucking it safely into his belt, he returned to the other scroll and picked it up. It was blank, how strange.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Sokka retrieved the artefact and rolled it up. He moved toward the prince's room and wondered whether he should knock on the doorway, leave the scroll on the floor on the inside or just barge in with it. As he neared the doorway, none of that was necessary. Zuko was already staring at him with a blank expression. Sokka brandished the scroll in front of him and threw it like a bone to a hungry hippodog. "You dropped this," he yelled as he bolted for the outside encampment. As he made it outside, Sokka grabbed his knees as he sucked in a few huge breaths. What had he done? Zuko was going to kill him. Sokka supposed his days of being bored were now officially over.


	2. The Unlocking Scroll

Hey

Here's the next installment and thanks my reviewers. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I'm trying to make it seem similar to the TV episodes so I've added a previously on Avatar sequence. It's all taken from the previous chapter so if you've just read the last part, skip ahead. After signing up for so many different story alerts, I sometimes have trouble remembering which storyline belonged to which. So I've done this to help those of you who suffer from the same problem.

Hope you likey and reviewers make me happier than Iroh sipping Ginseng tea. :-)

Jace.

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><p><strong>Past Knowledge<strong>

_PREVIOUSLY ON AVATAR_

As amazing as the Western Air Temple was, Sokka was bored. Either way, it was obvious that there was something going on between his sister and the Avatar and it hurt ever so much. It made him feel lonely. Sokka had known for quite some time that he favoured men over women but had held onto the fact that both Yue and Suki seemed to like him. It hadn't worked.

The mural was made up of four differing windows, each containing a graphical representation of one of the four nations. Underneath the murals were a few words that were so highly decorated that Sokka couldn't work out what they said. Zuko gave Sokka an annoyed look. "Alright, since I don't think I'll get rid of you otherwise, give me the thing you need read to you, Peasant." Zuko growled a little and began to make sense of the characters. With a frown he haltingly read, "Let the... spirits... g-guide you... on... your quest." "What does it mean?" asked Sokka plaintively. With a shrug of his shoulders, Zuko answered with, "how should I know?"

With a shaky hand, he applied pressure to the black koi fish and with the grating of stone upon stone, it began to sink into the wall. "It's Ao, spirit of the sky! Who else would be important to the Airbenders?" Zuko announced as he continued to push the stone in. "Wait, look!" squealed Sokka, pointing to where the characters were. They had moved upward to reveal a space filled with scrolls. The two looked at each other and grinned madly before grabbing a scroll each. As soon as the scrolls were removed, the sound of grating stone once again filled the room and the stone fell back to it's original place.

Jumping excitedly, Aang informed them, "The Paintings of Enlightenment is a test benders could take if they thought they were ready to move onto the next stage of their spiritual development. For some students the scroll they received would describe a new technique for them to learn and for others it contained wisdom meant only for them." Zuko looked at his scroll. "What good is an Airbending scroll to me?" he asked the Avatar. The twelve year old blinked at the prince, "I don't know Zuko but if you could see the mural, the spirits must believe there is something you need to know."

Sokka looked down to his unopened scroll. Why did the spirits give him a scroll? It's not like he could bend, well, anything. As he tentatively reached to open the scroll, he was distracted by the sound of a crackling fire. He looked up to see Zuko encased in flames. "Spirits, you're on fire!" Gently lifting the unconscious man, Sokka heaved him back to his room and lowered him gently onto his bed.

With a quick glance at the prince's eyes to ensure that they were indeed closed, Sokka gently let the fingertips of his right hand glide across the scar. It was both really weird but also awesome. The first thing Zuko felt when he started to return to consciousness was an icy feeling on his burn. Why was the Water Tribe man feeling his face? It felt nice so Zuko let him continue. Anyway, this groping someone whilst they were asleep was really creepy and stalkerish so Sokka took one last look at the face. He was more than surprised when his eyes locked with two golden orbs. As he made it outside, Sokka grabbed his knees as he sucked in a few huge breaths. What had he done? His days of being bored were now officially over.

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><p><em>The Unlocking Scroll<em>

If there was one thing Sokka was good at, it was pretending that everything was okay when quite clearly it wasn't. No one else seemed to care that only a week ago he had been molesting the Fire Nation Prince's face whilst he was unconscious. Also, no one seemed to notice that he hadn't dared attempt to look at his scroll from the mural room. Then again, no one else knew that he'd felt up Zuko's face or that he had gained a scroll in the first place. Instead, he'd been fielding all manner of annoying questions from the others asking what was wrong. If he heard that one more time he'd shove his boomerang down their throat. Okay, maybe he wasn't good at pretending everything was okay but he was good at concealing exactly what was annoying the hell out of him. Zuko and a stupid scroll.

Of course the only other travelling companion who did know of these things was Zuko himself. Sokka would practically run from the prince whenever he saw him coming anywhere nearby. Whenever those golden orbs locked with his, he'd have a difficult time trying not to squirm, lest the others notice. Considering that one of them was the Avatar and two of them were Bending Masters, they could be really dense. In fact there was very little that they knew about the entire mural debacle at all. They knew Zuko got a scroll and then they'd seen him practicing the movements continuously over the last week. He's almost completely mastered his new skill of fire shielding and was more than happy to show it to the Avatar who was starting to get a handle on it himself.

In all honesty, the spirits were right. By giving this information to Zuko, both he and the Avatar would hold a power that Azula and Fire Lord Ozai knew absolutely nothing about. It could completely turn the tide of a battle. In fact, the entire world's existence may depend upon their ability to harness their shield's power. Sokka had been surprised last week when Zuko explained to the gang over dinner that his scroll was a Firebending scroll.

_Aang merely replied to the prince's quick explanation, "The spirits never make mistakes. That Firebending scroll has been waiting for you to read it for centuries."_

_"But how do you know that? I could have picked up a different scroll from the piles in there," argued the scarred teen._

_With a small shrug Aang replied, "But you didn't."_

_Sokka felt that sounded a lot like that stupid fortune teller lady but it all sounded much more believable coming from his friend rather than that old crackpot. After a quick glance toward the Firebender and finding his inscrutable eyes on himself, Sokka's gaze slid quickly to his bowl of stew. Would he say something about it to the others?_

He didn't and had made no move to do so in the following week much to Sokka's relief. Whilst he was pleased that Zuko could keep his mouth shut, he couldn't gauge his reaction to the unannounced groping. Did he like it? Hate it? Didn't care? There was no way for him so tell. Strangely enough, all of this was rolling around Sokka's brain whilst he was eating stew for dinner around the campfire again. Perhaps that was why he was dwelling on it at the moment. The spirits have a sick sense of humour. Since his views and thoughts were so confused, several voices were at war inside his head.

One voice (which sounded suspiciously like Aang) kept whispering that, "The spirits don't make mistakes and they don't have a sick sense of humour!" The voice was encouraging him to sneak over to his pack and open the scroll which was tucked carefully next to his space sword. The real Aang had said that not all the scrolls contained Bending instructions but may contain necessary wisdom instead. "It's your duty to your friends to open the scroll. Just like Zuko's, it could save their lives."

A different voice which sounded like Toph would snort a lot. "You're not a Bender, why would the spirits care about you?" As much as he didn't want to think about it, it was still true. He wasn't a Bender. Why would they care? "It was obviously a mistake, you should take the scroll back." How? The wall was unmovable and the scrolls were locked, patiently waiting for their true owners to discover them.

A Katara-like voice was caught between looking out for him but at the same time it sounded somewhat superior just because she was a Bender whilst he was not. "You should at least look at the scroll. It may be important for Aang to know what it says. Get over yourself and suck it up before I water whip you within an inch of your life." For some reason her threats always caused him to shudder. His sister could be very scary and she wouldn't hold back just because he's her brother. Usually she would turn up the intensity of her Waterbending for that very reason.

The final voice in his head which he rarely heard (but always seemed to make the others fade away a little) belonged to Zuko. "There may be a different reason for you to get that scroll. Perhaps you were meant to receive it but not to read it. It may be your task to give it to someone else when the time feels right." This seemed the most reasonable advice out of the lot. It could be his job to deliver it to the right hands but how would he know who it was meant for and when they should have it? "It's not like a Peasant like you could even read it, anyway. You couldn't read mine when you picked it up." That's right, the other scroll had been blank.

"That's because he's not a Bender and is a useless lump," sniffed Toph-voice disdainfully.

"He's not useless," argued Katara-voice with indignation. "He's just Bendingly challenged."

"Whatever," snorted Toph-voice. "If you weren't too busy drooling over Twinkletoes, you might have been able to help him out earlier."

"What the spirits are you talking about?" asked Katara-voice in a quavering voice. "There's nothing happening between Aang and I!"

"Yeah and I'm a turtleduck."

"Don't argue," interjected Aang-voice. "All you're doing is confusing poor Sokka."

"Who asked you to get involved?" asked Katara-voice angrily. "I can take care of this myself."

"I know you can..." began Aang-voice but he was cut off.

"Hey, you didn't disagree with how Sugar Queen likes you. Does that mean you like her too, Twinkletoes?"

There was a few moments of stammering Aang-voice before Katara-voice started shrieking at him in rage. All the while Toph-voice was howling with laughter. Just as he did in real life, Zuko-voice refused to say anything. This went on for a while and Katara-voice was really building up a head of steam.

"You selfish monk! If you did have any sort of feelings you should have told me immediately, that way I could tell you..."

"THAT'S IT!," shouted Sokka, his face screwed up in rage. He'd had enough. "I don't care if you love Aang or not, Katara! Just shut up already. I'm sick of listening to Toph laugh and I'm sick of not hearing you say anything at all, Zuko. So I groped your face a bit, get over it. It doesn't mean I love you or anything. For the sake of the spirits, everybody just shut up!"

He got his wish. There was a deafening silence in his mind. With a happy sigh he tucked back into his stew, munching merrily away. After stuffing six spoonfuls into his mouth at once, he looked up at his travelling companions. They were all staring at him, frozen completely in shock. Did he say that all out loud? The only sound that could be heard was the slight buzzing of the flysquitos around the campfire.

As always Toph was the first to break the silence. "Wait, wait. Lemme get this straight, Snoozles. Are you telling me you felt up Sparky's face?" Without waiting for a response she collapsed into laughter, falling onto the ground. She started to howl louder and bashed her fists on the dirt, causing the earth beneath them to gently rumble. "That's priceless!" she cackled brokenly between her laughs and breaths.

Her actions seemed to spark all manner of activity. Teo, Haro and The Duke joined in with the laughter although they managed to remain seated instead of crumpling to the floor like a decapitated snakelion. Sokka blushed a bright red and wished the earth would swallow him whole. If he was feeling particularly brave he could always ask Toph to do it for him but she hardly seemed able to do so at the moment. She was far too busy laughing at his expense. Aang and Katara were both a dark red colour at the suggestion of the two of them as a couple. They also refused to look in the other's direction.

Zuko just sat, still frozen to the spot. He couldn't believe that Sokka would casually (or not so casually) scream out that he actually did caress his face the other day. Since the warrior had been avoiding him from the moment he'd been caught, Zuko never even dreamed that he would bring it up again and certainly not as publicly as he did. What should he do? Acknowledge it? Run? Running away certainly sounded appealing but a prince never runs. Instead he rose to his feet and stalked away, listening to the sound of four children laughing at what he had come to think of as the only time someone had genuinely wanted to touch him. Well, except for Uncle Iroh. He was allowed to hug Zuko on very rare occasions. Usually when Zuko was too mentally or physically fatigued to put up a fight.

Sokka watched the prince storm off with a heavy heart. Damn his stupid mind and mouth. If only he were just a little bit more normal he wouldn't have embarrassed the Firebender. If he wasn't a creepy stalker, he'd be able to approach the boy head on and just ask him out like a normal person. His chances of being with Zuko were now reduced to less than zero. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It seemed he'd proved Aunt Wu right once again. His life was full of struggle and anguish, most of which was self-inflicted. He hated that his actions were only helping to prove that the old dingbat might actually be a real psychic.

Snapping back to the present, he left the campfire and his still cackling "friends" and sullenly walked to his sleeping bag. After comfortably snuggling down he hoped his mind would allow him to sleep sometime soon. Reliving his stupidity would only make him angrier, keeping him from sleep even longer. Mercifully he was out almost immediately where he dreamed of a certain scarred warrior, all thoughts of Teo banished from his mind.

He was rudely awakened by a rock jabbing him in the spine. He rolled over in a valiant attempt to stay submerged in sleepy time but a wry comment didn't let him. "Wake up Stalker!"

He blinked his eyes a few times before he was able to focus on Toph's face. Her sightless eyes were facing his general direction. Damn, so she was talking to him. "Why do I have to wake up now?" asked the warrior petulantly. He almost covered his face with his sleeping bag just so he wouldn't have to look at the girl who spent the majority of last night laughing at him.

Toph snorted. "Because Sugar Queen said so. Apparently she's hungry for meat."

"So?" replied Sokka. Knowing that it was Katara that was cutting his sleep short did not give him much confidence in winning this battle. She'd just empty a globe of water on him if he took too long to follow her commands. Since he was almost two years older than her he should be ordering her about but it just wasn't worth the misery or the futility.

"Well since you completely embarrassed her last night by talking about her feelings for Aang, she's decided you need to make up for it, Stalker." Toph managed to sound absolutely delighted by the news.

With a loud groan Sokka sat up in defeat. "Stalker? Really?"

With a shrug of her powerful shoulders Toph noted, "I've decided that Snoozles is too nice a name for someone who sneaks around groping people whilst they're asleep."

Sokka could see the logic in that. Damn, Toph was being logical? What's the world coming to? "Fine," he muttered as he tried to locate a fresh set of clothes which were appropriate for hunting. Unfortunately there were none left. Katara hadn't gotten around to doing the laundry yet. She did everyone's with Aang's assistance. It was a simple matter of grabbing everyone's clothes, throwing them into the fountain, levitating the clothes laden water, swirling it around a bit and allowing only the clothes to drop. As the clothes fell from the globe, Aang would catch them all with his Airbending and would dry them before they dropped to the floor. Once that was done, Katara would left the dirt fall from the globe before returning the squeaky clean water back to the fountain. They had gotten much faster at the art of Bending laundry as time had progressed and their control of their powers seemed to have been boosted by it too.

Since he had no hunting clothes, he had to come with some sort of plan to ensnare some meat in his sleepwear or his already angered sister beat him up. There was nothing more humiliating than being flogged by your own little sister. Zuko would surely sympathise with him, if he was talking to him at any rate. How could he hunt without leaving the camp? A plan came to mind and he retrieved a flexible stick and fashioned it into a bow. He tied a long length of rope to the wood and crafted a sharpened arrow to which he tied the other end. They were in an Air Temple so catching a bird or two seemed more than just possible.

Sokka moved toward the gaping cliff and sat just a couple of body lengths from the edge. Patiently waiting for a bird to fly past, Sokka considered how much he might have screwed up his sister's love life. Whilst it was true that she was head over heels in love with the Avatar, she was not yet ready to face it. If she was she would have worked it out on her own. However she could use a huge push in the right direction so maybe he had just saved himself a month of misery...

His train of thought was brought to a standstill as a flock of swansparrow flew by and he let loose his arrow missing everything. Oops. By the time he had pulled the arrow back again, the flock was long gone. This might not be such a good idea after all. As he sat and scanned the skies for any sign of food, Sokka felt a weight moving around his body. It started around his left knee before streaking around his back to his right shoulder and onto his head. A furry head popped into view. "Hey Momo," acknowledged Sokka, looking into the Lemur's greenish-grey eyes.

Momo chirped a few times in response as he tried to reach the bow whilst remaining on Sokka's head.

"Sorry buddy, but you can't play with that." Sokka grinned at the Lemur who waddled around his head, chirps intermingling with a couple of cranky sounds. His displeasure of being denied his fun clearly evident. "There are plenty of things to mess around with in the camp. Why don't you find something else that I'm not using, hey?" Sokka encouraged the creature to leave without trying to anger it. Momo could be quite fierce when he wanted to be. Just like his master. In the end Momo did scurry away to find more interesting things to do leaving Sokka to his hunting.

A couple of hours later, Sokka gave up for the day. He managed to snare three swansparrows, a pigeonduck and a large eaglecat. It was probably more meat than he would have gotten if he had tried his hand at fishing and it was worth not running into any far-travelled angry relatives of Foo Foo Cuddly Poops. Pleased with his haul he brought it over to his sister as she watched Zuko and Aang sparring in the middle of the encampment.

She wordlessly grabbed the avian carcasses from him and took them to where she usually prepared the gang's meals. Sokka felt extremely bad, the silent treatment meant that she was too angry to talk to him. A lifetime of knowing his sister meant that he knew it would probably take her a couple of days to talk to him and when she finally decided to grace him with her dulcet tones, she'd yell at him for an very extended period of time. The only possible exception to the pattern would be if something truly out of the ordinary occurred. Once she forgot to chastise him because a bird emptied it's bowels over Aang's head.

_Katara couldn't help but laugh as the Avatar had to wash his bald head clean. "Fancy an Airbender being attacked by a flying creature," she chortled to Sokka, her grievance completely forgotten. Good thing too, that blanket had been hand made for her by Gran Gran many years ago._

Sokka chose to relax against the comfortable fur of Appa. Sure he shed all the time and the fur ended up everywhere but it was so soft to relax on. No wonder Aang would often fall asleep on his massive tail. After a short nap Sokka awoke to Momo running around bashing something with his small tail. He blinked a couple of times at the tiny creature. What was he holding? It was an opened scroll. Was it Zuko's? He didn't really need it anymore so maybe he gave it to Momo to play with. Sokka snuck up behind the Lemur and stole it from the creature's grasp. It screeched at him before running off to find something else to do. Smirking at his small victory, Sokka glanced down to see many images of stances and what seemed to be light purple water. Great, the Lemur had been stealing from Katara. Maybe it was his ticket to weasel his way out his impending tongue lashing.

With high hopes that rescuing one of Katara's scrolls from Momo would spare him, Sokka gingerly approached his still angered sister. She glanced at him once before returning her gaze to the roasting swansparrow before her. "Hey Katara!" Sokka announced cheerfully. She refused to comment and he shoulders tensed. Not a good sign. Not a good sign at all. "I, erm, well, I..." She was hunching closer to the fire with every sound, so not very good at all. "I rescued one of your scrolls from Momo!" he quickly yelled, holding the scroll out before him as if to shield him from he towering rage.

Katara's icy blue eyes looked at the scroll, back to Sokka's cringing face and back to the scroll. She turned back to the roast without a word. "C'mon Katara, I saved it for you." Sokka thought his plan would work. It didn't.

In a thunderous voice Katara started yelling at him. "First you thought you'd make fun of me around the campfire and now you're trying to annoy me with a blank scroll you apparently stole from a flying Lemur? What part of that did you honestly do for my benefit. Aang won't look at me, I'm practically blushing all of the time now and you try to make it up to me with an empty piece of parchment? You useless sack of saber-tooth mooselion turds! Can you do anything right? We're all working our hardest for the benefit of the Four Nations and you're goofing off groping sleeping princes and playing with dumb animals? Start pulling your weight, Sokka or so help me..." she continued in that vein for quite some time. So much time that the roast almost burned. Sokka would have pointed it out but no doubt she'd somehow blame him for it's charred demise or she'd keep yelling at him for interrupting her thus running dinner anyway.

He sat on the opposite side of the campfire from her trying to ignore her narrowed eyes in his direction. It was a difficult chore. If he wasn't avoiding her glance he was trying not to listen to Toph's snide comments about how creepy, stalkerish and unmanly he was. Sokka scarfed down his food faster than ever just to avoid the oppressive atmosphere. He'd only looked in Zuko's direction once he'd finished eating and caught the prince's eyes upon him. With a blush and a hasty retreat, Sokka all but ran to his sleeping pouch. It was then that he discovered that his pouch had been ransacked. Momo must have taken his scroll, not Katara's like he'd originally thought. Bloody annoying critter. He shoved the scroll back to where it had been residing for the last week, slunk into his sleeping bag and forced himself to drift off before the others could follow him.

Comfortable sleep was scarce that night. Every dream was of either his friends taunting him for one reason or another or he was doing incredibly naughty things with the Fire Nation prince. After one particularly nasty moment where the two dreams collided abruptly (Katara and Toph had caught the two of them snuggling on a canoe near the Southern Water Tribe) Sokka woke with a start. The sky contained only a slight orange-pinkish glow, indicating that dawn was imminent. Knowing the others would be up and about soon, Sokka grabbed his pack and after a very meagre breakfast of only fruit (ugh!) he made his way toward the temple, intent on finding somewhere away from his irritating campmates.

After wandering the halls and searching through the many rooms, he found one he liked on the far side of the complex. It was bright and cheerful despite the fact that it was facing the interior of the cliff. Sokka decided to call it the Mirror Room. A complex set of large mirrors brought sunlight from the other side of the temple, through the open windows and into the room. Every wall was adorned with full mirrors and the only exception was the wall with the windows and the doorway. The most fascinating part was surprisingly the roof. In fact it wasn't a roof at all. It must have been the underside of the cliff itself. Stalactites of dark brown rock hung steadfast from the ceiling but far from being jagged and jutting out like the rest of the cliff's did, they looked smooth to touch. It seemed like the coarse edges had been smoothed away. The floor was made up of thatched mats of bamboo and a ridged swirling circle flowed around the room.

Sokka decided that it was almost like a sparring ring. Perhaps it was a training room. It would explain why the stalactites were smooth, they could had been eroded away by centuries of Airbending practice. The room was also pleasantly warm, a by-product of the convergence of light rays from the multitude of mirrors. He sat within the centre of the circle and rested from his exploring. He would have taken perhaps an hour to find this place and whilst that was nothing compared to some of the distances he'd been forced to travel, staying inactive in the Western Air Temple for the last couple of weeks had let his physical condition weaken.

Well that wasn't good enough. Sokka took a long drink from his waterskin and moved his pack outside the circle. He stripped off his shirt and flung it on the floor next to his pack. He performed a few warm-up katas he'd learned from Suki on Kyoshi Island many months ago. When he felt sufficiently stretched and ready he launched into a couple of the more advanced fan katas. By now the sweat was pouring off of the Water Tribe boy and he grabbed another healthy drink. He extracted his space sword whilst he was at his pack and made his way to the centre of the circle again. Master Piando's teachings flew through his mind and body as he became one with his unique sword and it was once again an extension of his own body.

After about an hours worth of practice, Sokka returned his sword to his pack and stretched down. No need to have sore muscles for no reason, especially after his long period of inactivity. He thought back to the last time he fought and it was their battle with Combustion Man. That was about two weeks ago, no wonder he was feeling exhausted, it had been a long while since he'd had a workout.

As he replaced his sword the scroll rolled out of the pack and unfurled at his feet. As he reached to pick it up he saw the little pictures scrawled across it again. He ticked off the facts in his brain. Fact one - He and Zuko both gained a scroll from the Paintings of Enlightenment. Fact two - The spirits don't make mistakes. Fact three - The scroll Momo stole was from his pack. Fact four - Katara couldn't read it but he could. Conclusion - The scroll must be meant for him and him alone. "Take that Toph-voice!" announced Sokka happily to the Earthbender's inner voice which he just knew was lurking somewhere in his mind.

Sokka plonked gracelessly on the floor and began to read in earnest. "The Unlocking Scroll. Follow these dance steps to a steady beat to achieve the correct result." That's it? It wasn't very informative, decided Sokka as he looked at the illustrations. He knew that Waterbending scrolls used blue to represent water, so what was purple floating stuff supposed to represent anyway? Despite his certainty that he was supposed to learn this, Sokka still had a few reservations. His inner voice (actually his own for once) was reminding him that he'd just look stupid. At least there's no one here to see it he countered himself.

Out of all of the scrolls in that cache, he just had to get one that described itself as a dance. As if dressing up as a girl on Kyoshi Island wasn't bad enough. His only consolation was that both Aang and Zuko learned a Dragon Dance form. If dancing was manly enough for the prince, it was manly enough for him. Sokka placed the scroll next to him on the floor and tried out the first few steps of his new dance. All in all, he felt extremely ridiculous but he worked with a single-mindedness he'd honed thorough his sword technique. Working in groups of four he tirelessly worked on each set until they flowed freely, almost naturally. When he could perform each set of the fours confidently, he combined them into groups of eight. The room seemed to heat up even more and he was once again sweating profusely. He was soon able to combine the groups of eight into sixteens. Eventually thirty-twos and he was soon ready to try all sixty-four steps at once.

He completed the dance several times and nothing happened. Great, Sokka thought to himself. What a waste of time. He grabbed the scroll from the floor and was about to hurl it into his bag in disgust when a footnote caught his eye. "To complete the dance successfully, the following pattern must be clapped and the dance must progress at exactly the same pace." Glancing at the beat pattern, Sokka memorised it. Two long claps, two short claps and one long one to finish.

Moving once again to the centre of the circle, Sokka tried the claps followed by the first four moves. To his astonishment, he felt a tingling sensation in his fingertips. As soon as he stopped in surprise the feeling stopped too. Encouraged by his small success, Sokka tried the entire dance again with the clapping pattern at the beginning. The feeling started again in his fingertips before it travelled up his arms and toward his shoulders but stopped abruptly causing his steps to falter. What had happened? He tried again with the same result. After a third try he thought maybe he was doing something wrong.

Sokka consulted the scroll and double checked his stances to discover that he'd been mixing his left and right hand movements up in step thirteen. He practiced the change a couple of times with the set of eight it was located in and then tried the full dance again. This time the sensation passed through his shoulders and down to his toes before starting to ascend again. It stopped just before his knees and he was forced to rectify another mistake where he was standing on the wrong foot. He repeated the process stopping to fix any mistakes along the way.

He was really starting to tire out but was determined to see the dance thorough. With a quick drink break, he resumed the starting stance and clapped and danced for all he worth. The tingling flowed through his arms, down to his toes, back up again where it paused near his heart. It climbed up his neck to his head and when Sokka completed the last step the tingling in his hands, feet, heart and head turned from a slight tickly feeling into fire coursing through his body. His heart felt like it had been torn apart but the pain in his head was the worst and grabbing it he sank to the floor crying out in pain where darkness overtook him.


	3. Unanticipated Discoveries

Hey there.

So I've added another chappie and I'm sorry that it's late. I'm trying to do one a week but I've been sick for the last week so really you're lucky you got it at all!

Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers. I must admit I didn't know how portraying Sokka and Zuko would go seeing as I've only just watched the series once. If I write anything incorrect, please let me know so I can change it. Sometimes I can barely remember the names of the secondary characters and I have to check it on IMDB. Because of my illness, I was lazy so I hope it's still alright.

Before I leave you to read this, I have a surprise up my sleeve. Don't give up on the story if it shocks/confuses/disappoints you. Trust me, it will all make logical sense in the end.

Hope you enjoy it and lemme know if you do.

Jace.

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><p><strong>Past Knowledge<strong>

_PREVIOUSLY ON AVATAR_

The mural was made up of four differing windows, each containing a graphical representation of one of the four nations. "Wait, look!" squealed Sokka. They had moved upward to reveal a space filled with scrolls. The two looked at each other and grinned madly before grabbing a scroll each. As soon as the scrolls were removed, the sound of grating stone once again filled the room and the stone fell back to it's original place. Jumping excitedly, Aang informed them, "The Paintings of Enlightenment is a test benders could take if they thought they were ready to move onto the next stage of their spiritual development. Sokka looked down to his unopened scroll. Why did the spirits give him a scroll?

"THAT'S IT!" shouted Sokka, his face screwed up in rage. He'd had enough. "I don't care if you love Aang or not, Katara! Just shut up already. I'm sick of listening to Toph laugh and I'm sick of not hearing you say anything at all, Zuko. So I groped your face a bit, get over it. It doesn't mean I love you or anything. For the sake of the spirits, everybody just shut up!" Did he say that all out loud? As always Toph was the first to break the silence. "Wait, wait. Lemme get this straight, Snoozles. Are you telling me you felt up Sparky's face?"

In a thunderous voice Katara started yelling at him. "First you thought you'd make fun of me around the campfire and now you're trying to annoy me with a blank scroll you apparently stole from a flying Lemur?" He sat on the opposite side of the campfire from her trying to ignore her narrowed eyes in his direction. It was a difficult chore. If he wasn't avoiding her glance he was trying not to listen to Toph's snide comments about how creepy, stalkerish and unmanly he was.

After wandering the halls and searching through the many rooms, he found one he liked on the far side of the complex. It was bright and cheerful despite the fact that it was facing the interior of the cliff. Sokka decided to call it the Mirror Room. Sokka decided that it was almost like a sparring ring. He thought back to the last time he fought and it was their battle with Combustion Man. It had been a long while since he'd had a workout.

"The Unlocking Scroll. Follow these dance steps to a steady beat to achieve the correct result." That's it? It wasn't very informative, decided Sokka as he looked at the illustrations. He knew that Waterbending scrolls used blue to represent water, so what was purple floating stuff supposed to represent anyway? Out of all of the scrolls in that cache, he just had to get one that described itself as a dance. As if dressing up as a girl on Kyoshi Island wasn't bad enough.

He completed the dance several times and nothing happened. Great, Sokka thought to himself. What a waste of time. He grabbed the scroll from the floor and was about to hurl it into his bag in disgust when a footnote caught his eye. "To complete the dance successfully, the following pattern must be clapped and the dance must progress at exactly the same pace."

He was really starting to tire out but was determined to see the dance thorough. With a quick drink break, he resumed the starting stance and clapped and danced for all he was worth. The tingling flowed through his arms, down to his toes, back up again where it paused near his heart. It climbed up his neck to his head and when Sokka completed the last step the tingling in his hands, feet, heart and head turned from a slight tickly feeling into fire coursing through his body. His heart felt like it had been torn apart but the pain in his head was the worst and grabbing it he sank to the floor crying out in pain where darkness overtook him.

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><p><em>Unanticipated Discoveries<em>

Prince Zuko had a dilemma to solve. Sokka was missing however that wasn't the problem. The problem was that no one else seemed to have noticed the Water Tribe boy's absence. Katara had been putting most of her energy into ignoring her brother's existence. Aang had been suffering through one of Toph's brutal Earthbending sessions for hours and the other three were gallivanting around the bowels of the Western Air Temple. Ordinarily Zuko would take his woes (grudgingly of course) to Uncle but since his uncle was still imprisoned by the Fire Nation he couldn't. The person in the gang that he got on the best with was Toph but after the campfire incident, his warmth toward her had all but dissipated. There was no way he would bring up the topic of Sokka around her. She would just start her taunting and laughing all over again.

Anyway, why did he need someone else's help? He was Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation. Even when he was banished from his homeland with his uncle and a ship, he had to rely heavily upon himself to get things done. With a single-mindedness he had hunted the Avatar's group for many months. Whether his decisions were good or bad, he'd still made them himself and dealt with the consequences of his actions. In many ways, the idea of asking someone else for help was ridiculous but this was a different kind of situation. Hunting down the boy would be extremely easy but talking to him and somehow convincing him to return to the campsite was the problem. The warrior would take one look at his face and bolt like he had all week long.

The last time the two boys had exchanged any words was when Sokka returned his Firebending scroll. _"You dropped this."_ Zuko could still hear the words in his head as they reverberated around his skull. Those words were the only reason Zuko had noticed the boy was gone in the first place. The peasant had been on his mind a lot lately. If it wasn't his words, it was his biceps and muscular torso. If it wasn't his body it was the ghost of his cold fingers on his face. If it wasn't that it was one of his stupid sarcastic comments. Pretty much the warrior had been on his mind all week long and Zuko found it rather disturbing.

Shouldn't he be thinking about Mai? She was his girlfriend until he ran away to join the Avatar and his gang. They'd known each other since childhood. Then again, it hadn't been that difficult to write her a letter explaining how he had to leave. How had she taken the news? Was she angry with him or was she just as apathetic about it as she seems to be about everything else? Zuko could still remember how he'd told her that she was emotionless on Ember Island.

Ember Island. Ty Lee was convinced that the island would show them all their true selves and at the time all Zuko could work out was that he was always angry. With what he wasn't sure. At first he thought it was about his nature, his sister, his father and what they all expected him to be but now he wasn't so sure. Maybe he was angry about Mai and how no matter how much he tried to please her she would never be happy. Whether the rage he'd spoken of was about her or not, the fact remained that she was pretty much an emotional void. So why would he want to spend time with her? Why feel for someone who couldn't return those feelings? So should he be thinking about Mai or Sokka? Did he even like men that way?

Zuko shook his head to clear the questions from his mind and heaved a sigh. He turned his attention from his worries to the immediate problem - Sokka's disappearance. All in all, there were only two gang members that he would consider discussing the matter with at the moment. Sucking in a few calming breaths, he walked across the camp toward his first choice. "Bison," he began, looking at the monstrously large arrow on Appa's head. "Legends say that your kind are extremely intelligent. Do you know where the Peas... I mean, Sokka is?"

Appa glared at the prince with his dark brown eyes before a deep rumble rolled out of his mouth.

"Does that mean yes? Or no?" Zuko asked, trying to halt his ever present temper from rising. A low roar met his question leaving him at a loss. "What does that even mean?" Roar and glare. "Damn you, you great beast. You're no help whatsoever." Zuko turned around to stalk away but was knocked to the ground. Quickly rising to his feet he saw a gigantic paw moving back to Appa's side in his peripheral vision. When he turned a venomous glare onto the creature Appa looked upward with what Zuko would later describe as an innocent countenance. "Idiotic bison," muttered the prince as he stomped off to find his back-up gang member.

After a bit of searching around the camp, Zuko finally located his target. Momo was trying to catch a flysquito that was buzzing around his head and was oblivious to the prince until he was grabbed around the middle. With a screech of surprise, Momo clawed at the hands around him and found freedom quickly. He dropped to the floor and turned to look at his ex-captor. He stared blankly at Zuko who was glaring down at him.

Taking another moment to calm his temper, Zuko knelt down so he was closer to Momo's height. "Hey Lemur. Do you know where Sokka has gotten to?" he asked in what he clearly thought was a friendly tone. Momo just stared back at the prince who repeated the question a couple of times, his volume increasing with every recurrence.

Without warning and a few nonsensical screeches and coos later, Momo flapped away hurriedly. Zuko followed him. The lemur looked from side to side before spotting what he was looking for. He gently coasted to a stop and turned to look at the prince.

Zuko heaved a couple of breaths after his jog to discover that the creature was standing on the remains of the fountain. After a quick check of the area, Zuko ascertained that Sokka was nowhere nearby. "I didn't want to find the fountain, you flying rat, I need to find Sokka!" Momo sped off again with the prince in pursuit. This time the prince found himself in his own room. Maybe Sokka was hiding in here, he was a bit stalkery after all. He checked every possible space but Sokka was nowhere to be found. Momo led the prince to the mural room, the top of the cliff and back to where Appa was (who looked less than pleased when he spotted Zuko again) before giving up on the Lemur. Why he had thought the creatures would be helpful in the first place was beyond him.

Zuko should have followed his first instinct and searched for the peasant on his own. It was like Uncle Iroh once said. _"Brewing tea is not a chore, my nephew. Selecting the grasses and herbs with choosing the correct proportions takes great skill. Just one sip of another's brew can tell you their temperament and unique personality. Nowadays, everybody seems to be in a rush and the art of making tea is not considered important enough. Tea that is rushed in preparation is not good tea. That is why I no longer drink ginseng tea, my favourite, unless it is brewed by me. I consider it too important for anyone else to undertake, Zuko."_

Almost without his noticing, Sokka had somehow become important to him. Originally, Zuko didn't even know the boy's name. All he knew was that the boy stood up to him when he first faced the Avatar at the Southern Water Tribe. He hit him with his damned boomerang and embarrassed him in front of his troops. Then he became a travelling companion of the Avatar - the peasant who wasn't a Bender. In fact, Zuko only learned his name a couple of weeks ago. Now he had the feeling that he'd never forget it. Somehow the Water Tribe peasant had become as important to him as ginseng tea was to Uncle. Why had he turned to others (and animals for that matter) when he should be taking this into his own hands? That's right, he was worried he might scare his quarry away or look stupid. Well, Sokka was more important than making a fool of himself.

With his new perspective, Zuko cleared his head of his thoughts and tried to remember the last time he had seen the boy. It was over the campfire last night. The Earthbending girl was making snide comments about him after his tongue lashing from his sister. Before he all but ran from the gathering, the warrior had looked straight at him. Something fluttered in his chest as he looked into the glacial orbs before they were wrenched from his gaze. The boy left and went to sleep but had he seen him this morning? No. The boy was already gone.

In all likelihood, Sokka had probably run away. It had been over a week of annoying comments from Toph, either an absence of or scathing words from Katara and Aang was far too busy learning how to be the Avatar to keep the peace in the camp like he usually did. Zuko glared around the camp at the others he could see, blaming them for the teen's disappearance. Couldn't they see they were driving him away? Zuko already got the impression that the boy felt separate from them because he wasn't a Bender and now they were verbally harming him. How dare they call themselves his friends! Well, he would just have to be a better friend than them and find him. Hopefully he could somehow convince him to come back to the camp.

Zuko grabbed his pack and filled it with provisions in case the teen was hungry when he found him. Breakfast was some time ago and if there was one thing Sokka loved, it was food. He also packed some bandages, torches and other items a seasoned adventurer would never leave without such as his trusty dao swords. No one else had observed that the prince had packed and they didn't even catch him leaving. Zuko wasn't sure whether he was pleased that he wouldn't be bothered or upset that his new campmates (he still couldn't think of them as friends) didn't care enough to realise that two of their number had slipped away.

Zuko had already decided that Sokka wouldn't just leave the Western Air Temple, he would find somewhere within it to calm down and take a moment before facing the gang again. He began to hunt through the massive and almost never ending halls. After a few fruitless hours of searching, he took a moment to rest and ate a few of the provisions he had brought along. The prince swallowed a few mouthfuls of water and rose to his feet. He once again began to search around for any sign of the Water Tribe teen.

As Zuko restarted his hunt, a deep throbbing pain in his skull brought Sokka back to consciousness. With a loud groan he pushed himself up only to collapse back onto the ground a moment later. Whilst he was lying prone on the floor he tried to remember what exactly was going on. He remembered the pain in his head but it was somehow moving? How was that even possible? With another heave, Sokka successfully managed to sit up. He looked blearily around the room, taking in how there were mirrors everywhere. Was he at a carnival? They have lots of mirrors there. No it didn't sound like a carnival. In fact it was eerily silent.

Searching the room for clues, Sokka's eyes fell onto his pack and his stomach growled loudly, echoing around the room. He launched himself at the pack in search of food only to discover it didn't contain any. Swigging from his waterskin, his eyes fell upon the opened scroll and the events from earlier flashed through his mind. Camp, space sword, rooms upon rooms, smooth stalactites, golden eyes, dance steps, pain, Stalker. Everything rushed back and he leapt to his feet and ran toward one of the mirrors. He checked for any visible signs that something had changed but everything was as it should be. With a sigh, Sokka approached the scroll and gingerly picked it up.

Muttering to himself, Sokka thought aloud, "They should have called it the Scroll of Pain instead of the Unlocking Scroll." Why would the scroll contain information that hurt him? Wasn't it supposed to be helpful like Zuko's Fire Shield technique? As if it wasn't bad enough that most of his actions resulted in self-pain, now inanimate objects were helping his clumsy self along. He'd be dead before the comet arrived at this rate.

Aang said the scroll from the mural was supposed to be helpful and that the spirits don't make mistakes. So maybe it was worth trying the dance again. The Water Tribe warrior looked at the illustration with a contemplative air, a finger tapping gently on his jaw. What was that stupid purple stuff anyway? Damn his natural curiosity. He had to find out. Sokka stared at the scroll and wondered if he performed the dance again whether the pain would return or was it a one time thing? Well, it's not like he really wanted to face the others yet. With a shrug he rose to his feet. After stretching the kinks out of his already sore muscles he psyched himself up to complete the dance again.

Five claps later, he began the still familiar movements. The tingling returned but it felt both the same and yet different. As he progressed through the steps the tingling intensified. However, instead of feeling warm and fiery as it moved through him, it seemed more like an icy sort of touch. Another difference he noticed was that the feeling was not moving steadily through his body like it had the first time. Instead, it seemed to swirl throughout his being like a current was moving it around his body. The swirling increased the closer he got to the end of the dance. He began to wonder if his body would just rip apart.

When he completed the third last step, the swirling suddenly stopped however he could still feel the icy whatever it was still within him. The second last step caused the icy sensation to be sucked from sitting throughout his entire body to residing only in his hands. It felt really weird and he wondered if the inside of his body would look and sound like how Toph would slurp her soup from her bowl at dinnertime. As he performed the final stance, the feeling burst from his body in a blast of arctic air. It felt like a dam in his body had burst and the slipstream of cold wind continued to squall from his palms. What the spirits? It was almost like he was Airbending but that was impossible. Aang was the last Airbender, not him. Right?

When the stream of icy air stopped, Sokka slapped himself in the face just to make sure that he wasn't having a stupid feverish dream. When his skull threatened to split in two with a couple of painful throbs, he determined that no he wasn't dreaming. Spirits. Was this truly for real? Was he some kind of Bender now? An Airbender? A Waterbender? Did that make him more useful to Team Avatar? Was he still the Meat and Sarcasm Guy or was he now the Meat, Sarcasm and Random Bender Guy?

A more disturbing question sprung to Sokka's mind. Should he tell the others? Surely Toph would tell him how stupid he was for thinking he was a Bender. Katara would demand proof before either cheering for him or snarking at him. Aang would of course be ecstatic because he always acted like a hyenakookaburra on cactus juice and Zuko would... Well, how would Zuko react? He had no idea. No. This should be his little secret. None of the others should know. Anyway, they'd probably think it's a cry for attention and that Sokka was weak and lonely. Even if he was he'd rather die than show those weaknesses.

With a look at the windows, Sokka realised that it must be late afternoon since the once bright light had started to lose its intensity. He should start making a move back toward the camp. After swigging the remaining liquid from his waterskin, Sokka hurled it and all of the other items that had scattered around the room into the bag with the exception of the scroll. He glanced over it one last time before rolling it up and carefully stowing it away.

Just as he was about to begin making his way back a sudden thought occurred to him. He'd unlocked this strange ability from within the first time he completed the dance correctly, then the second time he was able to push the cold wind from his body but the illustrations showed air (well, he assumed the purple stuff was air) moving around in much the same way Katara would Waterbend. Now that he'd unlocked this strange power, would it happen if he tried it once more? The niggling thought entrenched itself into his brain and he found himself shrugging the pack from his shoulders before he'd even realised that he'd reached a decision.

The third time through the dance felt different again. As he performed the movements, the swirling air currents within him at times escaped in and out of his body. In a way it felt like he was commanding a bison to do tricks in a circus, causing it to fly through rings of fire. In the seemingly never-ending mirrors he could see the air currents swirling around him and without even noticing it he saw he was hovering slightly above the ground. At that moment he lost his concentration and he managed to air slap himself in the face as he tumbled to the floor. So he was an Airbender then, how exceedingly bizarre. If that's what it felt like to lose control of this power, Sokka would have to learn to concentrate and focus a little more. Having satisfied his curiosity about the purple air currents in the illustrations of the scroll, he retrieved his pack from the floor and made his way to the doorway.

As Sokka approached the doorway, Zuko unknowingly did the same. As he had been searching the temple, some swishing sounds had caught his attention from a hallway he hadn't yet explored. What was that strange sound? He heard them stop followed by a loud thump. If it was Sokka he could be in trouble. He sped down the hallway and stepped into a doorway at random. As he entered, he ran right into the boy he had been looking for. Since Zuko had been almost running, his momentum caused the pair to tumble into the mirror room. With a quick blink of his eyes Zuko realised that he was lying on top of the teen and quickly sprang up again, a blush staining his pale skin. He reached his hand out for the warrior to grab but when it wasn't taken he soon realised that Sokka had lost consciousness. Of course, Zuko had no idea that Sokka had already been unconscious once before that day and had somehow managed to let loose his latent Airbending ability which he really shouldn't have in the first place since he was from one of the Water Tribes, not the Air Nomad people.

Zuko all but fell to the floor to check on the boy. His fingers flecked over the boy's head searching for any signs of trauma. There didn't appear to be any on his face or the sides of his head but the impact would have probably occurred on the back of his skull. Carefully cradling the new Airbender's head, he turned the inert body over and gently removed the band that held the teen's hair up. The strands sprang loose and Zuko found a prominent bump which had been hidden within the hair. Thankfully, it wasn't bleeding so that was one less worry for the prince.

The prince gently flipped Sokka up the right way and he gazed upon the boy's face. How had the boy in just under a week become one of the most important people in his life? It made no sense. Was the prince really that starved for physical contact that he'd decided that he liked the peasant? He hoped not. At the same time he hoped so. It was all very confusing.

Zuko looked up toward the now free hair. He hadn't ever seen it down before. Allowing his fingers a little freedom, he began to run them gently through the small length of hair. What was it the boy had called it? A foxtail? Something like that. It was coarser than his topknot used to be but then again he had the luxuries of scented soaps and oils. Sokka had none of those. Neither hairstyle could hold a candle to his mother's tresses. Her hair felt silkier and smoother than any material he'd ever encountered.

The young prince felt a pang go through his heart at the thought of his mother before he remembered that she was alive. For years he'd thought she was dead but his father had told him that she was banished for treason. Treason? Not likely. She was probably framed for something by Father. Maybe after they'd saved the world from Ozai, he'd be able to track her down and find her. Then again, if he's supposed to be the new Fire Lord, he might not be allowed the freedom to look for himself. At least he'd have an entire nation that would be able to search for her plus some allies in the other two kingdoms.

Continuing to unconsciously caress Sokka's hair, Zuko began to contemplate his two main obstacles that he had to overcome before he could really indulge in thinking about rescuing his mother. The first was that the current Fire Lord needed to be taken care of. When he faced down his father on the Day of Black Sun, he finally realised that his uncle had been speaking the truth. He had never been a father at all. He brutalised teenagers, banished family and was hell bent on world domination. Really, Zuko wondered why he had even tried to capture the Avatar for the selfish man in the first place but sometimes the love of your family could drive you crazy.

Thinking of crazy, the second obstacle of Zuko's happily ever after was his fanatical and psychopathically deranged sister. Azula. She who always tells lies. Lies so good they could fool even Toph. At least Uncle had taught him how to redirect lightning. He'd need every advantage because if anyone was going to stand up to his sister, it was going to be him. In a way, it was rather sad. For the world to come out of this predicament alive, half of his family had to die.

The solution to both problems was simple. He had to finish teaching Aang everything he knew about Firebending. In many ways, Aang was the perfect student. He had years of Bending experience and had already mastered the other three elements. The fourth should be much easier. Plus, he already knew what to expect with fire since he had apparently burned the Waterbender on his first attempt. Firebending was not to be used lightly. It could destroy virtually anything within in seconds. They had survived the trip to the Sun Warrior's Temple and the subsequent run in with the Masters. Dragons, who ever would have thought that there would still be dragons that were alive! They had learned the Dancing Dragon form and both had found their inner fire making their Firebending extremely potent.

The last puzzle piece was the scroll from the mural. The Fire Shield technique was invaluable. It taught him how to pull the fire from within and project it outward in a sphere of swirling golden flame, protecting him from harm. This was his hidden dagger, his lotus tile, his saving grace. Azula knew nothing about this technique. She would be blind to it's true purpose when the time for battle was upon them. She would merely assume that it would protect him from her attacks but in reality it would do far more than that. The shield would not only protect him, but would also absorb her fire and lightning attacks into it's swirling mass. This in turn, strengthens the shield even more causing the caster to gradually become stronger. He would use her power against her, much in the same way Uncle taught him to redirect lightning but on a much larger scale.

As Zuko's mind drifted off into many fantasies involving the charred demise of his demonic sister, Sokka's mind returned to consciousness once more. He felt he was on the ground but his head was cushioned by something soft and squishy. Something was stroking his hair and it felt heavenly. Was he Airbending in his sleep? Wait, that's right, he's an Airbender now. His eyes flew open but he discovered that he wasn't Airbending unconsciously. Zuko was stroking his hair, not air currents and his head was laying in the prince's lap. Zuko? With a gasp, Sokka rolled over and leapt to his feet. He looked everywhere he could without staring at the prince. This was made profoundly difficult as the image of the prince was reflected all around the room.

"Er," began Sokka. "Hi?" he asked pitifully.

Zuko had been startled by the hair slipping from his grasp. He hadn't even realised that he was still stroking the boy's head. When he figured he must have been doing that for quite some time, a blush rose to his cheeks. Looking to the floor as if it was very interesting, Zuko replied, "Hello."

There was a long pause where Zuko noticed the floor was really not very interesting and Sokka noticed the redness of the prince's cheeks, which he wasn't supposed to be looking at in the first place.

As always, Sokka's mouth started to work before his brain told it to. "Why are you here?"

With a snort the prince looked at Sokka's face which quickly turned away from his. "Do you know how long you've been gone?"

Sokka shrugged inelegantly. "A few hours, I suppose."

Zuko's eyes narrowed as he glared at the teen. "I waited for a few hours before I went to look for you. Then I spent a few hours looking for you and then when I find you, you get knocked out. Gah, you're so annoying!" It had started as a bit of a rant but he had been virtually yelling by the time he'd reached the end.

Sokka's brow furrowed. For the second time that week, the Water Tribe boy intentionally made eye contact with the Fire Nation prince. "Well it's not like I meant to get concussed and I wasn't the one who crashed into me running faster than a rampaging rhinophant. If anyone's to blame it's you, Fire Dork."

"Fire what?" snarked Zuko angrily, steam venting from his nostrils and ears.

In a snooty voice, Sokka spelled it out to him. "Fire Dork. D - O - R..."

"I KNOW HOW TO SPELL DORK, YOU, YOU, YOU..." Zuko was so livid he couldn't finish his sentence.

"Literate young man?" supplied Sokka airily.

This time fire snorted out of his nose and ears. Zuko took a few deep breaths to calm himself before he roasted the teen for dinner. In a much more restrained voice, Zuko announced, "I was going to go with idiotic Water Tribe peasant."

Sokka shrugged his shoulders. "Well then it's a shame you couldn't be a little more..." He left the sentence to dangle and just as Zuko took in a breath to speak, Sokka finished it. "Articulate."

"Sozin's Fiery Wrath, you're bloody irritating," Zuko seethed.

With a goofy grin, Sokka announced, "I try."

Zuko cast around his mind for a way to distract the annoying Water Tribe peasant. His mind instantly clicked onto the one thing that was guaranteed to produce results. "I have some food in my pack if you're..." Before he could even get out the word hungry, Sokka had leapt at the prince and proceeded to cling around his neck as he tried to pry open the pack left-handed. Zuko made a few choking noises but they had nothing to do with a loss of air and everything to do with the teenage boy who was currently glomping all over him. The blush rose to his cheeks again as he pushed off a very disappointed Sokka. Wordlessly he swung the pack off his back and threw it to the boy who was pouting on the floor.

Sokka rummaged through Zuko's pack and located every scrap of food. He placed it all in a pile in front of him and began to devour it all at once. He didn't even notice the prince sitting next to him until he found his hand pushed away from an apple it had been reaching for. It was then that he noticed Zuko's body was flush against his side and they were both eating for all they were worth. He suspected Zuko was trying to eat as much as he could because he knew Sokka wouldn't leave anything but crumbs behind. Very small crumbs.

When all of the food was consumed, the pair sat leaning into each other in a comfortable silence. Zuko cast a sidelong glance at Sokka and caught a flicker of the other's ice blue eyes. Their heads turned to face one another. Sokka's hand tentatively reached up to gently probe Zuko's scar just like it had a week ago. Zuko's right eye bulged and his left was opened as wide as his scar allowed. Just as hesitantly, Zuko let his fingers gently glide through Sokka's hair. Before either realised they had moved, the pair found themselves passionately kissing with a hunger that transcended Sokka's love for food.


End file.
